A recent report of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reveals that ‘closed door pollution’ is enlisted as one of the top 18 environmental hazards which cause cancer in the USA alone. In fact, it tops the list of such carcinogenic hazards.

Not only this, certain scientists are of the view that this ‘closed-door pollution’ is one of the top ten factors responsible for the deaths in America.

Briefly speaking, the pollution deaths in the West are due to the indoor-pollutants like the tobacco smoke, aldehydes and other cancerous substances. The cigarette smoke spreads highly poisonous gases like carbon monoxide which culminates into headache, fatigue, breathlessness, convulsions, unconsciousness and even death. Even the harmless looking gas appliances used for cooking release nitrogen oxide which causes breathlessness and other respiratory problems. Construction materials in the developed nations such as plywood produce carcinogens like formaldehyde. The modern energy-saving closed door houses are more asphyxiating and polluted than the old well ventilated homes.

Coming to the developing nations, it is the smoke-belching wood-cook stove (or chulha) which is responsible for the indoor pollution, since it has no provision for secondary source of air or proper ventilation. World Health Organisation statistics show that two-third of the global population, which reside in the rural areas of the Third World, uses these age-old wood-cook stoves and inhales innumerable carcinogenic elements through its toxic smoke".

International surveys of some of the Indian villages in the state of Gujarat have revealed that each lady cooking in such a smoke-filled kitchen inhales the smoke equivalent to that of smoking 200 cigarette packets in three hours of kitchen-work.

The same amount of smoke (which is found in our village kitchens) has killed a number of people in Britain who died out of sheer suffocation in a major tragedy in 1954. The only difference between our rural woodcook stove pollution and the indoor pollution in the London tragedy is that here we cook only for 3-4 hours at a stretch whereas there the air pollution persisted for a number of days at one go. Hence, such a terrible disaster.

In the same vein, recent surveys of Kenyan villages in Africa have unfolded that the pollution inside the four walls due to wood-cook stoves is spreading beyond the limits set by the WHO. Statistically, it is 20 times more than the desired or prescribed safety limit, in terms of air-pollution.

The jet-set modern world or the consumerist society we live in, does not spare anybody from such indoor pollution due to the various consumer items we use at home. For example, right from the drycleaned or laundry-washed clothes to the naphthalene balls for repelling insects and sprays used for killing cockroaches and mosquitoes, all are having such dangerous chemicals that badly affect human health. Your office too is not free from fungus and different air-borne bacteria which have a negative impact upon one’s health. People working in the factories are exposed to minute asbestos particles and several other air-pollutants which are always present in the factory premises.

About 50 people are killed every year in Britain due to faulty gas appliances. This odourless and colourless liquified petroleum gas combines with the haemoglobin in the blood and renders it useless as an oxygen carrier, thus killing the person who inhales this gas even for a short

duration.

Formaldehyde is yet another poisonous chemical associated with gas appliances that is feared to cause cancer.

This hazardous indoor pollutant called formaldehyde is also found in synthetic glues, chip boards, carpets, paints, furnishing and insulation. You may be surprised to know that the harmless looking house-dust may cause wheezing, coughing and asthma, apart from sneezing, blocked (or running) nose and breathlessness. Even enamels emit toxic chemicals. In fact, lead dust or fumes from paints can cause mental retardation and learning disabilities in children, apart from raising the blood pressure and damaging the brain, kidneys and the nervous system.

We should be very careful about the use of household pesticides. The safe-looking moth balls fumes off naphthalene or paradichloro-benzene causing nausea, dizziness, gastro-entiritis, convulsions, blood disorders and coma. Various detergents and disinfectants as well as chlorine bleaches (for bleaching clothes) comprise harmful air-pollutants which irritate eyes, throat, lungs and skin, apart from causing damage to certain portions of the human body.

The fashion of using aerosol perfumes, air-fresheners and deodorizers is a harmful one as it is risky for health, and at the same time does not even annihilate the source of foul odour. Pleasant-looking cosmetics like nail polish contain dangerous chemicals like formaldehyde-resin, acetone, xylene, tourene, and phenol which cause headache, respiratory problems, lung-irritation and cancer.

It is essential to take an about-turn in terms of our modem life-style with such an exposure to so many chemicals even at home. Firstly, the developing countries which are still not leading a high energy-intensive lifestyle like in the West, should promote houses with sufficient and appropriate ventilation for proper air circulation. The more ventilated the house, the lesser the fear of indoor-pollution. Smoking has to be totally banned inside the house as passive smoking also causes lung-infection, especially in the vulnerable children.